In recent years the sport of wake surfing, performing surfing maneuvers on a surfboard in the wake of a boat without using a tow rope, has become popular among water sports enthusiasts. Wake surfing maneuvers are akin to those performed on natural ocean coastlines. However, wake surfing has been limited as a sport by the lack of boats capable of making good surfable waves at a safe distance behind the boat. Wake surfing requires a large wake pattern of “surfable” quality to enable the rider to perform surfing maneuvers. New boats have been equipped with various systems to generate a better surfable wake. However, generation of sufficiently large, steep, surfable quality waves using older conventional ski boats is not practical.
Conventional water ski boats are not designed to make waves but, rather, to minimize them in order to minimize power and to provide the smooth wake patterns that high speed skiing requires. Thus, the goal of traditional ski boat design is to lessen displacement, decrease drag, and enable the boat to travel faster with less energy. This is achieved, for example, by light displacement, straight after-buttock lines, a shallow-V bottom, and a bluff transom, so that the boat operates at high speed in a fully planing mode. In order to generate an increase in wake size, wakeboarders have attempted to overcome the design objectives of traditional water ski boats by adding static ballast to the boat. Such ballast is usually in the form of water filled bags, concrete blocks, or other such weighted objects that disadvantageously occupy inboard passenger space. One other significant disadvantage to static ballast is that it can easily lead to an unsafe overload condition and scuttling.
Even a ski boat ballasted for wakeboarding will only produce a wave that is not of surfable quality at normal speeds. Therefore, creating a surfable wave with a conventional ski boat typically involves a reduction in speed to less than 10 mph along with the addition of ballast to the boat. At such speeds and weights, the waves created by the boat are typically within a few feet of the boat's transom, as well as the exhaust and propeller, making wake surfing using conventional ski boats difficult to perform, unhealthy and dangerous.
In view of these limitations, as outlined above, the invention described below is a multi-locational wedge that can be removably fastened to the starboard or port side of the hull to amplify, elongate, or smooth the boat's wake. When the boat is operated at designated speeds using the device it produces enhanced “surfable” wake patterns.